Harry Reid: Jobless benefits top priority in 2014

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that extending unemployment benefits will be the first item on the Senate’s to-do list in 2014.

As Reid, flanked by his top leadership deputies, laid out Senate Democrats’ election-year agenda focused on income inequality, the Nevada Democrat emphasized that the “first thing [for the Senate] is to make sure that those people who are waiting and waiting to find a job still get the important check that they deserve.”

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Absent a vote on the legislation before the Senate goes home for Christmas break – which appears unlikely – Reid said he’ll file cloture on the bill before the chamber adjourns and that he is aiming for a vote no later than Jan. 7.

The bill would be the one introduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), which would extend unemployment insurance for three months. The Obama administration has endorsed the plan.

“It’s a good bill and it deserves a vote,” Reid said.

Existing unemployment benefits are poised to expire on Dec. 28 for 1.3 million people nationwide. Though renewal of the insurance has been tucked into larger fiscal deals in the last few years, it was not included in this year’s budget agreement struck between Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).